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科学美国人60秒 SSS 海蛇尾没有眼睛也能看见

时间:2020-12-02 03:05:34

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(单词翻译)

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列,我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔。

Brittle1 stars are close relatives of starfish with a much more delicate appearance.

海蛇尾是海星的近亲,但外表更为精致。

"So if you imagine a starfish with really skinny, spiny2 arms, made up of lots of little articulated plates, that's kind of what a brittle star looks like—a cross between a millipede and a starfish, I guess."

“想象一下海星,它长着细长且多刺、由许多小关节盘组成的腕,这基本上就是海蛇尾的样子,我感觉像是千足虫和海星的杂交体。”

Lauren Sumner-Rooney is a visual ecologist at Oxford3 University. One of the brittle star species she studies, Ophiocoma wendtii, also has color-changing superpowers.

牛津大学的视觉生态学家劳伦·萨姆纳·鲁尼说到。她研究其中一种海蛇尾Ophiocoma wendtii,其还拥有变色超能力。

"If you catch one of these animals during the day, they're a really beautiful reddish brown, dark brown color. If you actually go out again at night and collect the same animal, they're this very pale beige with dark stripes."

“如果白天捉到这种海蛇尾,会看到它们呈现出非常漂亮的红棕色和深棕色。如果晚上再去抓,它们就会变成带有深色条纹的浅米色。”

The reason for that color shift was murky—perhaps for UV protection or camouflage4. But now Sumner-Rooney's team has come up with a possible answer: that red coloration might help the brittle stars sort of see, even though they have no eyes. In bright daylight, their redness filters the light reaching photoreceptors along their arms.

颜色变化的原因尚不明朗,也许是为了防紫外线或伪装。但现在,萨姆纳·鲁尼的团队想出了可能的答案:红色可能会帮助海蛇尾看东西,即使他们没有眼睛。在明亮的日光下,红色会过滤掉沿着腕足到达光感受器的光线。

Brittle stars like hiding in shady parts of the reef. So the researchers placed the brittle stars in an environment with black-and-white-patterned walls, aimed at testing whether the creatures were simply light sensitive—which isn't the same as vision—or if they could truly see.

海蛇尾喜欢藏在礁石的阴暗处。因此,研究人员将海蛇尾放入有黑白图案墙壁的环境中,目的是测试这种生物是否只对光敏感——这与视觉不同——还是它们真的能看见。

The vision test involved a black vertical5 bar centered on a white vertical bar twice the width. The nearby walls were 50 percent gray. Without true vision, the black-and-white-patterned area would simply come across as 50 percent gray, and you wouldn't expect the brittle stars to consider that part of the arena6 a good hiding place.

视觉测试包括一个置于白色竖条中间的黑色竖条,白竖条的宽度是黑竖条的两倍。附近的墙壁是50度灰色。如果没有真正的视觉,黑白图案区域只会留下50度灰色,你不会指望海蛇尾会将活动场所的这部分看作不错的藏身之处。

Instead the brittle stars flocked towards the pattern—suggesting they have at least rudimentary visual skills. But strangely, the creatures lost this ability when they turned from red to beige. After doing digital reconstructions7 of the visual system, the researchers determined8 that perhaps the reddish pigments9 limit the angles of light reaching photoreceptors along the animals' arms—thus improving the resolution of the brittle stars' vision and allowing them to, in their own way, "see."

相反,海蛇尾会向图案处聚集,这表明它们至少具有最基本的视觉技能。但奇怪的是,当海蛇尾从红色变成米色时,它们就失去了这种能力。对视觉系统进行数字重建后,研究人员确定,也许是光线沿着海蛇尾腕到达光感受器时,红色限制了光的角度,从而提高了海蛇尾的视觉分辨率,并使它们能够以自己的方式“看见”东西。

The results are in the journal Current Biology.

这项研究发表在《当代生物学》期刊上。

So far, one species of sea urchin10 has also been shown to have this visual ability without true eyes, and it, too, changes color.

到目前为止,有种海胆也被证明具有这种视觉能力,但它没有眼睛,而且也会变色。

"There could be countless11 other examples of weird12 and wonderful visual systems that we have no idea are there—simply because, you know, this animal, looking at it, you can't find 'an eye,' a single discrete13 visual organ. And there are so many other animals like that that could be using vision, we just haven't looked in the right place yet."

“可能还存在无数我们不知道的奇怪而美妙的视觉系统,仅仅因为这种动物看上去没有眼睛——单一分离的视觉器官。像这样可能具有视觉的动物非常多,我们只是还没有正确的看待它们。”

In other words, when it comes to seeing, the eyes don't always have it.

换言之,就“视力”而言,眼睛并不总是有利。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 brittle IWizN     
adj.易碎的;脆弱的;冷淡的;(声音)尖利的
参考例句:
  • The pond was covered in a brittle layer of ice.池塘覆盖了一层易碎的冰。
  • She gave a brittle laugh.她冷淡地笑了笑。
2 spiny 3F9zU     
adj.多刺的,刺状的;n.多刺的东西
参考例句:
  • This is the Asiatic ornamental shrub with spiny branches and pink blossoms.这就是亚洲的一种观赏灌木,具有多刺的枝和粉红色的花。
  • Stay away from a spiny cactus.远离多刺仙人掌。
3 Oxford Wmmz0a     
n.牛津(英国城市)
参考例句:
  • At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
  • This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。
4 camouflage NsnzR     
n./v.掩饰,伪装
参考例句:
  • The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
  • The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。
5 vertical ZiywU     
adj.垂直的,顶点的,纵向的;n.垂直物,垂直的位置
参考例句:
  • The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
  • Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。
6 arena Yv4zd     
n.竞技场,运动场所;竞争场所,舞台
参考例句:
  • She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
  • He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。
7 reconstructions b68a36323018dfe7d6624e864a340794     
重建( reconstruction的名词复数 ); 再现; 重建物; 复原物
参考例句:
  • Multicolored reconstructions have been formed using (black and white) volume holographic plates. 利用黑白体积全息片已经做成了彩色重建象。
  • The method gives ways to evaluate collision speed in traffic accident reconstructions. 该模型为交通事故再现推算碰撞速度提供了有效实用的方法。
8 determined duszmP     
adj.坚定的;有决心的
参考例句:
  • I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
  • He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。
9 pigments 90c719a2ef7a786d9af119297e63a36f     
n.(粉状)颜料( pigment的名词复数 );天然色素
参考例句:
  • The Romans used natural pigments on their fabrics and walls. 古罗马人在织物和墙壁上使用天然颜料。 来自辞典例句
  • The original white lead pigments have oxidized and turned black. 最初的白色铅质颜料氧化后变成了黑色。 来自辞典例句
10 urchin 0j8wS     
n.顽童;海胆
参考例句:
  • You should sheer off the urchin.你应该躲避这顽童。
  • He is a most wicked urchin.他是个非常调皮的顽童。
11 countless 7vqz9L     
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的
参考例句:
  • In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
  • I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。
12 weird bghw8     
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的
参考例句:
  • From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来,他好像有点怪。
  • His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
13 discrete 1Z5zn     
adj.个别的,分离的,不连续的
参考例句:
  • The picture consists of a lot of discrete spots of colour.这幅画由许多不相连的色点组成。
  • Most staple fibers are discrete,individual entities.大多数短纤维是不联系的单独实体。

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